help with a new project! (hello again everyone)

[loramarsden]

hello!
as part of my new job as artist in residence i have to run community classes during lunchtimes at school. on fridays i am soon going to be having a class of under 5 children (pray for me)

i want to incorporate a bit of 'what i do' in my artwork in the classes, but i know alot of it would be far too complicated. so here's where you guys come in!...

i would LOVE to do something to with kids to do with coin-op stuff... and all i could think of so far was me precutting tons of white cards that would fit into my gumcard machine and getting the kids to decorate them and sign them and make an art vendor, like a pre-school 'art-o-mat'.

thats my first thought anyway, just wondered if you could think of anything that might work?

thanks xxxxxxx

[badpenny]

Hi Lora, welcome back and a Happy New Christmas to you.

A class of under five children eh? Does that mean there'll be four of them?

Good job I'm not trusted with such projects anymore I'd be tempted to take in a bandit and rob their dinner money off them. I like your idea of vending their pictures and suppose that although they would enjoy the game element of many end of the pier type machines you would be heavily criticised if you introduced them to the gambling element.

You could follow the theme of the Lucky Cat or was it Black Cat (?) vendor of the 20/30s where after introducing the coin it vended a coloured token, which you then compared to a chart. Different colours gave different prizes of varying amounts of sweets, and of course some were total losers.
You could make all of yours winners for a multitude of different prizes and write the colour/pattern/number or whatever on the card your vendor dishes out. That should be fun and keep the anti gambling lobby at bay

[loramarsden]

Hi Lora, welcome back and a Happy New Christmas to you.

A class of under five children eh? Does that mean there'll be four of them?

Good job I'm not trusted with such projects anymore I'd be tempted to take in a bandit and rob their dinner money off them. I like your idea of vending their pictures and suppose that although they would enjoy the game element of many end of the pier type machines you would be heavily criticised if you introduced them to the gambling element.

You could follow the theme of the Lucky Cat or was it Black Cat (?) vendor of the 20/30s where after introducing the coin it vended a coloured token, which you then compared to a chart. Different colours gave different prizes of varying amounts of sweets, and of course some were total losers.
You could make all of yours winners for a multitude of different prizes and write the colour/pattern/number or whatever on the card your vendor dishes out. That should be fun and keep the anti gambling lobby at bay

haha! very good. sadly not. a 20 strong group of 4-5 year olds

i thought the gum card vendor would be good and i could make designs to put in the panels on the front advertising it as a sort of 'miniture vending art gallery'. with me being a resident artist/art tech i have to do something art related so i thought it would be nice for them to make miniture works for the 'gallery'. also, thought it would be good as the young ones have short attentions spans so if i pre-cut lots of little cards they can do lots of very quick, small drawings, paintings etc. then i can scan and print multiples with the 'artists' name on the reverse.

i ran it by our head of department and he thinks it'd be great to have in school reception so visitors could use it and it would be an interesting way of showing off the community work we do. i also take a special needs class so thought they could do some work for it as well!

even considered making 'applications to the gallery' which our regular 11-16 year old students could fill in with proposals for work for the 'gallery'. a nice way to make teenagers engage with art..as of course most of them are too cool for art, i forget we have xbox's and ds's now!?!?!

your idea is REALLY good though, particularly for the little ones. thanks so so much, thats really helpful! thanks alot i'll have to have a chat with the other art teachers about it

oh, by the way, when i showed my head of department what i had planned, he dug up a battered copy of Jean-Claude Faudots 'Arcadia' which he gave me! it has made my christmas! because of the snow school shut early for christmas he gave me my christmas presents today, which were lovely and all, but the added bonus of the book has pretty muched pooed all over the other gifts :-)

i am a lucky lady! @&@

[slotalot]

Hi Lora , Congrat's on your new job, welldone

This is just an idea but, why not make the size of your cards 2 or 3 times as big than your finished cards , and once they have been decorated cut them up into 2 or 3 bits to fit your machine, then they could be collected and mixed or matched to make differant pic's a bit like they are on the Snap machine (see below). if the drawing is a bit to advanced for the 5 year olds, get them pre printed on the school copying machine, and get them to colour them in, the pic's could be anything from people to monsters or animals??? you could even get the older class to do the pics for the younger ones to colour in....
Best Regards Stuart, age 6 and a bit

[loramarsden]

wow! another great idea! you lot are really making feel ashamed. my lack of ideas is astonishing considering i pretty much get paid to have them!!!

thats a really lovely idea! i should have thought of this sort of thing as part of my card vending in my degree show i did a photo of me split into 8 which you collected to create a lovely picture of yours truly to put on your bedroom wall! oooo im so pleased!

thanks x

[slotalot]

Hi Lora , Not sure what Mrs Slotalot would say if I put your picture on my bedroom wall ... on second thoughts...... yes I do
Glad you like the idea, good luck with the project, and don't forget to let us all know how it goes..

[speedwell]

Hi Lora, you won't get better advice than from Badpenny and Stuart. I couldn't begin to try. I expect you know of Tim Hunkin but if not, it's worth a look at http://www.underthepier.com as it might give some other ideas to chew on.
P.S. my father used to quote "those whom the gods love die young" maybe ....but 30 would be a waste.....

[loramarsden]

Hi Lora , Not sure what Mrs Slotalot would say if I put your picture on my bedroom wall ... on second thoughts...... yes I do
Glad you like the idea, good luck with the project, and don't forget to let us all know how it goes..

i wasn't suggesting it for a second haha! i don't think anyone would enjoy a photo of me wearing a big pair of joke shop false teeth, a moustache, glasses, smoking a fake cigarette!

i'll be sure to let you know how it goes, i've lugged my gum card vendor into school today and its so nice to have it on display in my classroom instead of stuck in the garage as it has been since i finished uni in summer! x

[loramarsden]

Hi Lora, you won't get better advice than from Badpenny and Stuart. I couldn't begin to try. I expect you know of Tim Hunkin but if not, it's worth a look at http://www.underthepier.com as it might give some other ideas to chew on.
P.S. my father used to quote "those whom the gods love die young" maybe ....but 30 would be a waste.....

i have heard of tim hunkin yes! i referenced him in my journal a few times at uni, i LOVE his work. wish i had the brains to construct anything even half as impressive as his stuff!!!
he was very helpful with my research and replied to a few questions i had about his practice, he seems like a lovely chap!

and perhaps your right, maybe 30 would be a waste. 8 years isn't very long, especially when there are so many more coin-operated beauties to meet!
x

[malcymal]

Many moons ago whilst working at a teacher training college I went out to a school whereby they had a Mills Hi Top with numbers on the first and third real and in the middle plus, minus, divide and multiply. They had it on free play and the kids would pull the handle then work out the sums. You wouldnt get away with such a thing to day due to 'ethics' and the question of introducing gambling to kids. Therefore, vending machine is a different kettle of fish altogether so you will get away with it (i work in schools now). I think its a super idea. If the machine has gambling overtones, then you might run into trouble; there is always one jumped up parent or governor who can find something against some sort of policy or law.
Did you ever buy a vending machine for your uni project, i cant remember if you did or didnt?!?!?!?